AQW 13170/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 10/06/2024
Answered On Date: 24/06/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health, pursuant to AQW 12140/22-27, for a breakdown of the (i) number of individuals supported; (ii) number of journeys made; and (iii) average journey mileage.

Answer:

Five of the Health and Social Care Trusts have advised that they do not hold this level of detail (i. individuals, ii. journeys and iii. mileage) within their central systems and it would require an extensive manual exercise to extract such information at a disproportionate cost.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NAIS) have advised they do not hold this level of detail (i. individuals and iii. mileage) within their central systems and it would require an extensive manual exercise to extract such information at a disproportionate cost. NIAS do however have readily available data on the number of journeys made per year which is outlined in Table 1 below: -

Financial Year	Taxi Journeys	Costs (£)
2019-20	7027	206,470
2020-21	15462	795,364
2021-22	16871	852,767
2022-23	27180	2,587,768
2023-24	28198	2,286,768*
Total	94738	6,728,471

*2023-24 Draft, unaudited, and uncertified figures.